PhotoChallenge 2016 Week 20: Doors

At the end of last year I discovered Photochallenge.org.  This is a small group of photographers who set forth a weekly challenge to other professional and amateur photographers.  What I was drawn to with this weekly assignment is that is pushes you to try new techniques and get out and take pictures on a weekly basis.  I'm taking part again this year and will also do a quick blog post about each of them.  The rules of the challenge do require that these are new pictures, not from your back catalog.  With my busy work schedule, I may not be able to get out each week and do this, so I will likely add a few of my older photos on the blog--taking the opportunity to look at the plethora of pictures I've taken and actually do some processing and weeding.

PhotoChallenge 2016 Week 20: Doors

This past week's challenge was to take a picture of a door.  Seems like an easy one right?  The hard part is going out and finding the perfect subject during the week at hand.  And also framing it in such a way that the shot is interesting and not flat and boring.  Art-A-Whirl was going in Northeast Minneapolis this past weekend and I took my camera along for a wander around the old neighborhood.  

1) Battered.  Here's my top choice for the week.  While exploring the nooks and crannies of the old industrial Thorp Building I found this exterior door wide open, shadows accentuating the scrapes and furrows in its well aged surface.  I like to think about how much this door has been through over the years. 

2) Watcher.  This door itself wasn't amazing, but the watching gargoyle and the framing with bushes and street sign make it pop a bit for me.  Thanks to Sj for pointing this one out to me!  

3) Cargo.  Here's another from the same building. I loved the solid metal with impressive iron hinges and locking mechanism.  The little pop of red makes it stand out as well.  

4) Anne Frank House.  This one is from my back catalog.  Taken in Amsterdam, this is the famous house where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazi's during WWII. If you haven't read The Diary of Anne Frank, you probably should.  The impact of this place was deep on our visit, but marred slightly by a poorly behaved German school group who were laughing and fighting and shouting the entire time.  Oh well, those who don't pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it and all...  In this shot I accentuated the reflections of the colorful houses in the reflections in the windows to give some contrast to the plain black of the door itself.